FIA WEC Silverstone - After Four Hours …

I know this may be hard to believe but not a great lot has happened during this middle section. However this is often the case with these longer races, they tend to unravel towards the end when the various tactics emerge. We have a suspicion this is possibly when some of the team managers find out as well.

There was a short sharp shower at the start of this part of the race. Interestingly we have hearing about Michelin’s crafty ‘Intermediate’ tyre. They refer to it as being a ‘Hybrid’. They call them ‘Treadless Intermediates’ and tell us that they allow the drivers to run in damp or wet conditions, and even on patches of dry asphalt, in the place of conventional ‘patterned’ intermediates . As far as we can tell it has a clever, pretty soft, compound that sort of squeegees the water away without the need for a tread pattern. If this sounds a bit unlikely it isn’t April 1^st so we think it is true.. Toyota used them for a brief period and came back in because they didn’t appear to work. Word is that Michelin don’t really have a ‘proper’ wet tyre that works on very wet tracks. Audi also used them during qualifying.

Back to the plot .. as we said not much has really changed. The Audis seem to be running like clockwork ahead of the two Toyotas. At the moment their lap times are much the same so one suspects that Audi are doing enough to control the race and maintain the right sort of buffer in case of a crisis. Then we have the two Rebellion cars doing what they do best.. we do wonder how they would fair with a hybrid since they are clearly a talented team with good set of drivers.

Strakka as we mentioned are out of it and retired.

In LMP2 the leader board has hardly changed during the race so far.

LMGTEPro is still led by the #97 Aston Martin which was 1’01.694 secs ahead of the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, who in turn is still ahead of the #92 Porsche.

In LMGTEAm Aston Martin’s impressive weekend continues with the #95 car a lap ahead of the #51 Ferrari ..

There have no more retirements.

LMP1

1. #1 Audi Sport Team Joest
2. #2 Audi Sport Team Joest
3. #8 Toyota Racing
4. #7 Toyota Racing
5. #12 Rebellion Lola
6. #13 Rebellion Lola

LMP2

1. #24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
2. #25 Delta ADR Oreca
3. #35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
4. #49 Pecom Racing Oreca
5. #47 KCMG Morgan-Nissan
6. #41 Greaves M/sport Zytek Nissan
7. #26 G-Drive Oreca
8. #49 Pecom Racing Oreca
9. #45 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan
10. #32 Lotus

LMGTE Pro

1. #97 Aston Martin Racing
2. #71 AF Corse Ferrari
3. #92 Porsche Team Manthey
4. #99 Aston Martin Racing
5. #51 AF Corse Ferrari
6. #91 Porsche Team Manthey

LMGT Am

1. #95 Aston Martin Racing
2. #81 8 Star Ferrari
3. #50 Labre Competition Corvette
4. #88 Proton Competition Porsche
5. #57 Krohn Racing Porsche
6. #76 IMSA Porsche
7. #96 Aston Martin Racing
8. #61 AF Corse Ferrari

There are a few cars/drivers that have had to visit the ‘naughty step’.. #96 Aston Martin earned itself a 30 sec ‘Stop Go’ penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

#49 Pecom Racing Oreca driven by Minassian won a straightforward ‘ Stop Go’ penalty having been deemed responsible for hitting #32 Lotus… a bit unlucky when you think how many laps the #32 Lotus has actually done!

#88 Proton Competition Porsche driven by Christian Ried also picked up a 30 sec

 ‘Stop Go’ penalty for speeding in the pitlane.